Ah, Tim Pawlenty. He was a governor who, facing divided government and a Democratic-leaning electorate, managed to produce a more or less sustainable budget (overwhelmingly through spending cuts) while maintaining core government services. That sounds like pretty good preparation for our moment. He has never come up with a vivid, fact-based narrative for his spending cutting, budget balancing record as governor. Contrast Pawlenty’s vague answer on his economic record with his much stronger, more specific answer on his abortion record and beliefs. For some reason, he decided to act the part of the one liner spouting demagogue while employing some badly executed moments of strategic weaselness ( on waterboarding in the first debate and Obamneycare in the second.) And he seems to be a really bad actor. His attacks on Bachmann came across (to me at least) as feeble and opportunistic.
Michele (Tip of the Spear) Bachmann is the Tiger Woods (pre-domestic incident Tiger Woods) of demagogues. She has the talent, but also works really hard at the game. Her answers on the debt ceiling were brilliantly crafted to maximize her heroic profile while utterly obscuring the costs of attempting to balance the budget in one year without raising taxes. Her ability to choose her words was quite impressive. Only Santorum was able to highlight (not very effectively) any of the practical consequences of an extended failure to raise the debt ceiling. The panelists (who asked some tough questions) totally whiffed here – and not just with Bachmann.
This is bad.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
